


A Simple Conversation

by Thea_Luthor



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Too much Dialog, not enough action
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 20:48:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thea_Luthor/pseuds/Thea_Luthor
Summary: Can a war of galactic proportions be solved by talking?  Rey and Ben are about to find out.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 4
Kudos: 13





	A Simple Conversation

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer first: I don't own Star Wars or any of its characters. The italicized dialog is from The Rise of Skywalker. All dialog and plot after the italics stop is my creation.
> 
> That having been said...I just can't with this movie. Sigh. So, I tried to fix it.

They stalked around each other, two rabid animals ready to attack at any moment. After even this short amount of time, they knew how it would go: Ren would attack with words and his version of logic, Rey would attack with physical weapons, hands...or whatever else was within arms’ reach.

By this point in the circle, Rey had moved as close to the transparent shield as she felt capable of doing safely. She stopped moving, not wanting to accidentally get closer to the teams of stormtroopers. She had nowhere else to go, and Kylo had a promise to keep.

_ “Why did the Emperor come for me?” _ she asked, _ “why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.” _

_ “Because he saw what you would become,” _ Kylo slowly took a step forward, _ “You don’t just have power. You have  _ **_his_ ** _ power. You’re his granddaughter. You...are a Palpatine.” _

Rey took a handful of steps backwards without realizing it, desperate to put physical space between them, as though that would somehow make his words different. 

Kylo pressed his advantage and took his own step forward to match each one of her retreat.  _ “My mother was the daughter of Vader. Your father was the son of the Emperor. What Palpatine doesn’t know is that we’re a dyad in the Force, Rey: two that are one.” _

In her desperation to get further away from him, she had moved too far back, and could start to feel the prickle of static electricity from the shield reaching forward to consume her. She was nearly out of space on the flight deck, and took a moment to look over the side, into the vastness of space beyond. Nothing good, or survivable anyway, would come of venturing further towards the inky black. 

_ “We’ll kill him, together, and take the throne,” _ at this point, Kylo realized that he was not making as positive an impression on her as he had hoped. Remembering that she reacted better to him when he didn’t have the mask, he removed it. It felt...weird. But she always made him feel weird.

_ “You know what you need to do,” _ he said, hearing his true voice and not the one distorted through the modulator, _ “You know.”  _

He swallowed nervously and held out his hand again.

_ “I do,”  _ she said, her face taking on that curled lip snarl it made when she was trying to prove to them both that she was his equal.

At that point he heard it, the unmistakable sound of the Millennium Falcon. Her idiot friends were coming to save her. He watched as she looked over toward the ship. He held fast as the exhaust knocked over the hapless stormtroopers that had opened fire. He ground his teeth as he heard the traitor call to her.

She turned back to look at him once more, an expression on her face that seemed to convey her confusion before she remembered herself and began to turn.

Damnit, he thought. He had miscalculated, and would have to do a great deal of digging to get himself out of this mistake.

But he’d be damned if he was going to let that ship, that  _ kriffing  _ ship, take someone away from him again. 

In the split second as she turned her back to him, he used all his might to Force pull her into his arms and then made her sleep. As he reacted to the suddenly boneless Rey, he reached out his other hand and pushed the Falcon as hard as he could, causing it to spin as the other idiot attempted to right the ship. By this point, the storm troopers had recovered and had once again begun firing. 

He lifted Rey bridal style and walked off the flight deck as the deck guns began firing on the Falcon, forcing it to flee. He jostled Rey once to get a more comfortable hold on her and looked down at her face. She still looked irritated, even in sleep. He grimaced. This was adding depth to the grave he had dug himself, but he had to do something. They couldn’t keep going like this. 

For the time being, he told himself, it didn’t matter how far down he was. He could fix this.

He was good with a shovel.

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTTLLTLTLTLTLTLTTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL

Rey woke with a small start at the unexpected weight on her chest. She blinked groggily and looked down. A golden, scaly creature stared back at her, reaching its long, thin tongue out to lick its snout. Her breathing didn’t seem to bother it, even when she took a deeper breath to take stock of herself. 

“He thinks you’re a hot rock,” said an all-too familiar voice, causing her to jerk and immediately try to reach for her lightsaber, making her realize that she was strapped to a chair,  _ again _ .

Swiveling her eyes around, she found him standing off to the side, smiling at her slightly with a matching creature to her own resting comfortably on his shoulder. Not even bothering to tamp down her rage, she reached out with the Force and…

...nothing.

Nothing happened!

“Calm down,” Kylo said patronizingly, “everything will be fine.”

“How can anything possibly be fine when I’m here with you again, strapped to a chair,  _ again _ ? What did you do to me? Why am I separated from the Force?”

“Ah, we’re both separated from the Force. I thought it would be a show of good faith. These creatures are Ysalamiri lizards and they deaden a humanoid’s ability to tap into the Force. You’re much more wily than when I interrogated you on Starkiller. I needed you to be left with only your regular abilities. And I’m also holding one to show that I don’t intend to take advantage. We probably don’t need two of them for just the two of us, but I wanted to make a bit of a show about the whole thing. Now you know that I can’t just dive into your head and take what I want, and I know that you can’t bring the upper decks down on our heads.”

Rey let that sink in for a moment. Lizards that could eat the Force. It was an uncomfortable concept. “Is it permanent?” she asked quietly, afraid of the answer.

“Of course not. I wouldn’t dare do something that would intentionally damage either of us beyond repair. Once they go back into their cages and are far enough away from us, we’ll get our connections back.”

“Where did you get them from?”

“Hux’s quarters. He’s got a cat down there, too. Maybe he’s putting together a zoo.”

Rey snorted before she could stop herself. The image of the red-headed prig living in what could amount to a barn was highly entertaining. Another thought came to mind. “Where are we, anyway?”

“In my quarters,” she heard more than saw him pull a rolling chair up closer to where she was and sit down, “don’t you think this is fitting? We’re back where we started.”

“It would be more fitting if  _ you  _ were tied to the chair,” she hissed out.

“Maybe we can try that next time; but we’ve got work to do now.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and made a face. Next time? “What work is that? You keep forgetting to kill me. That should be the only thing left for you to do.”

Kylo rolled into her line of sight, this time cradling the creature against his shoulder like she had seen people to do babies. “Rey, I never have nor ever will intend to kill you.”

She scoffed.

“I’m serious. If I had really been trying to get rid of you, I would have done it already. But I don’t. Apart from anything else that might be going on, killing you would be an immense waste of resources.”

“Can we just get on with whatever it is you have in mind? I have a war to fight.”

“But what if you didn’t?” Kylo asked so quickly, he almost interrupted her.

“Not this again,” As she couldn’t actually move away from him, the best Rey could do was roll her eyes.

“Yes. This.” He was the one to frown this time, “have you ever thought about how many catastrophic events could have been solved or avoided entirely just by having a simple conversation?”

“Really? This is your tactic? After all your complaints about how diplomacy is stupid, you and I are going to end the war entirely from having a chat?”

“This isn’t diplomacy. That’s bowing and scraping and speaking falsehoods to try to avoid insults. It’s not honest, and since it’s a bunch of garbage it never gets anything done. What I’m proposing to you is a conversation: an honest talk between the two of us to try to fix things.”

Rey sighed. “Fine. What do you want to talk about?”

After a few seconds of silence, she turned to look at him, observing an unsure look on his face. “Well,” she said, “go on. What are you waiting for?”

“I…” Kylo closed his gaping mouth with a snap, “I don’t know where to begin. I expected to have to work harder to convince you this was a good idea.”

“Look, Ben, I don’t know how much time I really have here before Poe, Finn, and Chewie try to rescue me. I’m here like you wanted, I may as well hear you out. But like I said, the clock is ticking, so let’s get on with it.”

“Ok, right, ok…” Kylo took a breath to compose himself, “I already told you that Palpatine is your grandfather and that he wants you dead.”

“Yes, yes, get on with it,” she really didn’t want to rehash any more of the horrible things he had said to her than she had to. Which was worse: sold for booze money or “sold” for her “protection” by well-meaning morons to a being that had no real intention of holding up his end of the bargain? It was lose/lose. Knowing who her parents were didn’t change the fact that she was in the middle of a war and had spent her entire lifetime scrounging to stay alive on a junk-heap of a planet.

“He’s afraid of you, of us, of what we can do together. That’s why he keeps telling me part of the whole story and dangling everything I want in front of me so I’ll stay in line.”

“How is he even doing this? I thought he was supposed to be dead,” Rey said, staring up at the ceiling of Kylo’s quarters.

“Oh, who knows? I think it’s cloning or something. I’m not entirely sure and I don’t really care. What I do care about is what to do about him.”

“But Ben, if he was supposed to be dead and he isn’t, how do we know that we’ll be able to kill him?”

“Why do we have to kill him?”

Rey jerked against her restraints in irritation. “Of course we have to kill him! He has to be destroyed!”

“I agree, but killed and destroyed are not always the same thing. Rey, we need to work together and outsmart him. He wants me to kill you because he’s worried about what we’ll be capable of if we work together. I think we should give him exactly what he’s afraid of, but only after we’ve lulled him into thinking that he’s won.”

“What difference does it make? Kill him now, get everything over with faster, instead of this complicated plot that you’re no doubt thinking up.”

“It’s not as easy as that. He has this enormous Sith fleet that he’s pledged to the First Order if I take care of you.”

Rey let her eyes drop closed in defeat. A Sith fleet now? Kriff, this nonsense never ends.

“Let’s look at the big picture here, Rey: the Resistance is down to, what? A dozen ships and four times that in manpower? Your higher ranks have been depleted. No one has any experience and no one who does is coming to help. Even if they did, it would be a suicide mission for all involved. I’ve seen the ships, Rey, countless Super Star Destroyer class, and that’s just what I could make out. Do you really want to sentence all those people to die for a cause they are going to lose?”

“What’s the point of living under a tyrant?” she replied.

“That is the most entitled thing I have ever heard you say! Where is the sand rat I used to know, who set her own broken bones as a child so that she could go out and garbage pick the following day to feed herself? The point is  _ survival _ , for as many people as possible. I don’t want to rule over a graveyard.”

“We’re back to this again? You must rule?”

“Yes, I must.”

“Why? Why couldn’t you have just come with me before? After Snoke. We could have run away, together, anywhere in the galaxy, or Wild Space even.”

“Because if I don’t take this all the way, everything I’ve done, everything I’ve sacrificed, will have been for nothing!” Now the agitated one, Kylo stood abruptly and threw the nearest thing he could reach against the wall. The lizard made an unhappy noise and he reached up to pat it without thinking.

Rey wisely gave him a few moments to pace and compose himself. She heard him stop and raised her head to see him looking out a porthole with his back to her.

“You ask me why I keep thinking about when I murdered my father. You seem to think that my guilt is a weakness,” he paused to take a deep breath, “You’re right, I have been thinking about Han a lot, especially in this new situation. I keep thinking about what he would do. He was clever, you know? That’s why the two of you were so keen on each other, right from the start. A survivor can recognize another survivor. He’s what’s guiding me now. What would he do with the pieces I have to get out of this alive?

“You think my guilt is a weakness. It’s not. It keeps me focused. But Rey, I have to get everything. I have to  _ be  _ everything. Because otherwise, he died for nothing. Is that really what you want? For his death to have been meaningless?”

Rey stared at him, mouth agape. That was not what she expected him to say. “No, I don’t want it to be meaningless. But can’t it be meaningful in another way?”

“How? You come up with an idea and I’ll be happy to discuss it,” Kylo turned back toward her and plopped back down into his seat.

“I don’t know. I just…” she trailed off. What else was there to say?

“Maybe we should get back on track,” Kylo suggested, “we need to stay focused on Palpatine.”

“Do we?” Rey didn’t realize that she had said that aloud until Kylo snapped his head to look at her.

“What is it?” he asked, a look of concern on his face.

“I just...I don’t know how to work with you when you are in ‘Kylo Ren-Master of the Universe’ mode. I know how to work with Ben, who listened to my concerns over a campfire and showed me that I wasn’t alone. This...this obsession you have, I’m not part of it, I could never be, and I don’t understand it. How can I out-think Palpatine if I don’t even understand what’s going on?”

“I’m still me, Rey.”

“Are you? Ben was willing to listen.”

“I listen,” he sounded insulted.

“No, you hear what you want and ignore the rest. I can’t be part of this plan, Ben.”

“Of course you can. You have to be.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t do this without you.”

“Oh, so  _ now  _ I’m good enough.”

Kylo blinked at her, at least, she thought he did. It was starting to be difficult telling exactly what he was doing as her eyes were filled with tears and she didn’t have a hand to wipe them away.

“Rey, what are you talking about? You’ve always been good enough.”

“Not good enough to get you to leave. I asked you to come with me, too. And you wouldn’t give up the throne.”

“I already told you why, but that isn’t about your shortcomings, it’s about mine. I can’t deviate.”

“And I can?”

“Yes!”

“Why do you think that I have more flexibility than you do?”

“Because you don’t owe those people anything, Rey! Where were they when you were starving to death on Jakku? Where were they when you were desperately trying to talk the great Luke Skywalker into removing his head from his ass to teach you? They are just as obsessed as I am, but they have no problem sacrificing everyone to reach their goal. I’m trying to keep people alive. And you can help me do that.”

“Where were  _ you  _ when all those things were happening to me?”

“I was waiting for you, and going through my own hell. Have I ever stopped coming after you since we met?”

She had to stop and think about that. Unfortunately, he had a point, especially once they realized they had a Force bond. She didn’t like it, but he was always there, floating just outside her periphery, keeping track of her. It was suffocating at times, after being alone for so long.

He smirked at her, “the throne is not the only thing I’m obsessed with. Palpatine didn’t have to study me very deeply to know what I want, and he thinks it works out for him. The Force’s will be done, one way or another.”

“The Force’s will? What are you talking about?”

“You really think It would have bonded us if we weren’t supposed to be allies?”

She looked away from him again. “I’m not turning to the Dark Side.”

He stared at her silently for a moment, chewing his lip. His silence caused her to look at him.

“Maybe you don’t need to,” he said, getting up to pace again.

“What? Ben, you just said that you had to turn me…”

“But what if it just has to look like I’ve turned you?”

“I don’t think my acting skills are that good.”

“You wouldn’t be acting. I think we can safely say that you aren’t entirely light. You pull from the Dark when it suits you, but that hasn’t damaged your ability to exist in the Light. It’s rather fascinating, and goes against pretty much all of what Luke was teaching. To hear him tell it, everything led to the Dark Side. Chew with your mouth open? Dark Side. Trip over a raised tree root on a hike? Dark Side. Seriously, it was very frustrating. No wonder his hair turned white.”

Rey giggled before she could stop herself. Kylo did have a point about Luke and his very binary view of the Force. Her intuition told her there was more to it, but no one had ever put it into words before. Kylo wasn’t really saying it, but he was getting close.

“So I would be, what? Neither?” she asked.

“You’d be both.”

“What’s both Light and Dark?”

“Rey,” he chuckled, “no...not Rey. Grey.”

“Grey Jedi.”

“And you don’t have to live like an ascetic, either.”

“That was more habit than choice.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Kylo smiled a little at her, “it doesn’t have to be.”

She met his eyes and realization dawned. “Wait a minute, I’m not agreeing to anything.”

Kylo held up his hands in concession, “I’m not assuming you are.”

“Fine, as long as you are aware.”

“Right…” Kylo looked away sheepishly, “and I absolutely have not been a party to any of the dreams you may or may not have been having about me.”

Rey sputtered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Dreams are private.”

“They are.”

“You had no right to intrude!”

“It wasn’t on purpose. I can’t help where our subconscious goes when we’re sleeping.”

“Having romantic dreams about members of your peer group is a completely natural, healthy thing,” she shot back.

“I’m not arguing,” he had that smirk on again, “I certainly think that the dreams I have about you are  _ very  _ healthy.”

He was fortunate that she had no control over her arms; she really wanted to punch him.

“Aren’t we getting distracted again?” she tried to retake control of the conversation.

“You were the one who wanted to clear the air,” he teased, “but fine. I will tell you, though, that when I say I need to have everything, I mean it. The throne...with you by my side. It has to be all or nothing. It’s what Han would have wanted.”

She stared at him with rage in her eyes and he hoped very strongly that the lizards’ Force dampening abilities were as strong as he had heard they were.

“So I’m just supposed to be your obedient trophy then?”

Kylo allowed himself a moment to relish that idea, but decided that his health would be better served to move the conversation along. He didn’t intend on leaving her tied up forever.

... _ although… _

“No. I don’t think anyone would believe that. However, the two of us as a united front would be a useful image. It would certainly help my credibility with the First Order, if I had brought the Last Jedi around to our side. Do you think it would crush the spirits of the Resistance enough that they would give up?”

“Didn’t you just say that the Resistance was willing to sacrifice every last member before giving up?” she scowled at him, “I don’t think Leia would believe the First Order propaganda, though. She’s savvier than that.”

It took Rey a minute to realize that Kylo had gone absolutely still. 

“What?” she asked, not understanding his sad and hesitant expression.

“Rey, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Leia...my mother...she died.”

“What?” Rey asked, wondering how long she had been knocked out, “When?”

“I led a squadron of Tie Fighters to attack a Mon Cal Frigate. The bridge was fired upon and exploded. I had sensed her on the bridge. She can’t possibly have survived that.”

“Ben, are you talking about the attack from before the night we talked over the campfire?”

“Yes.”

“Oh,” she took a breath, “I need you to release me.”

“What?”

“I promise not to punch you or run away, but I need to sit up.”

“Ok.” Without further questioning, Kylo undid the bindings on Rey’s wrists and ankles. As soon as she was free, she swung her legs around and sat up, reaching forward to take his hands in hers. “I don’t know how, but Leia survived. She’s been training me that past few weeks to help me hone my Jedi skills.”

“But...I saw the bridge explode. I know she was there.”

“I understand that, but I’m not trying to trick you. At least as of the last time I was at Resistance headquarters, she was alive. That may have changed, especially since I have no idea how long I’ve been here with you, but I waved goodbye to her when Poe, Chewie, Finn, and I left on our mission.”

“She’s alive,” he said, more to himself than to her.

“Yes.” Rey squeezed his hands to offer comfort.

“I can’t believe it.”

“I know, and maybe it would be better if you processed this later. We’re still running out of time, you know? I don’t want to rush you, but Poe is...well, impetuous is being charitable, and like you said, it’s not like the Resistance has a ton of ships that we can afford to lose the Falcon, which is exactly what will happen if we drag the war out any longer.”

“Ok, you’re right. Focus now, work through this later.” Without realizing it, Kylo squeezed her hands back. “So, we need to lull Palpatine into a sense of comfort, letting him think he’s won, and then...what?”

“Isn’t that exactly what happened last time?” Rey raised an eyebrow at him, “is he really going to fall for this twice?”

Kylo shrugged and grimaced, looking so much like Han that Rey had to blink at him, “maybe? Hopefully? How coherent can he really be? Also, how smart can he really be if he’s trying the same thing again?”

“Is there a Sith instruction manual or something that dictates how they attack their enemies? It seems as though everyone always does the same thing,” suddenly Rey felt very tired. Were they really going through the same motions that Luke and Vader had done thirty years ago? 

What was wrong with the Force?

Although, Vader and Luke didn’t have a force bond, so maybe that was different?

“We have a Force bond,” she said.

“Yes,” Kylo agreed, furrowing his brow as her comment seemed to come out of nowhere.

“I was just thinking: what’s different from when Luke and Vader faced him? You and I have a Force bond.”

“Yes!” he agreed enthusiastically, “so what do we know the bond can do?”

“We can communicate over long distances,” Rey contributed.

“Yes, but we can’t see each other’s surroundings.”

“But we can somehow include physical items if we’re together.”

“Right, the necklace.”

“Your shrine,” Rey frowned at him.

“Oh, yes, that,” Kylo looked a bit sheepish, “let’s move on. Is there anything else we can do?”

“I think we could probably touch each other, through the bond. I could feel the heat from your hand before Luke interrupted and blew the hut to hell and back,” Rey said, more thinking out loud than contributing to the conversation. She chewed on her lip.

Kylo stared at her for a moment before shaking his head to get back on track. “I wonder…”

“What?”

“What’s the point of a bond, of being a dyad in the Force, if it doesn’t do anything? I can’t imagine the sole purpose of this is for us to argue and trade jewelry back and forth. And you made an interesting point: we’ve never tried to work together. What if…”

He stood abruptly, and collected both lizards. Beckoning her to follow, he led her through the hallways until they reached Hux’s room. Kylo sliced the keypad outside the door forcing it to open, and gently released the ysalamiri into Hux’s quarters. They could hear a cat’s objection hiss as he closed the door again.

“Ok,” he turned to Rey after the door was closed, “how do you feel?”

“Foggy, like I’m waking up, but it’s taking a long time,” she admitted.

“Same,” Kylo took a key card out of his pocket and threw it down the hallway. Reaching out, he tried to Force pull it back into his hand. It shuddered on the ground and inched toward them, but didn’t come flying like Rey expected. “Damn. You try.”

Rey also reached out. The card responded slightly better, but still remained on the floor. “Maybe we’re still too close to the lizards.”

“Good point,” Kylo appeared to think for a moment. “Let’s try the Imperial shuttle bay. It’s far from here, big, and empty. We can’t do some damage in there without completely bankrupting the First Order.”

“Oh, too bad,” Rey teased him as she followed behind.

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL

Thirty minutes after arriving in the shuttle bay, their abilities had returned completely. 

“Let’s not use those lizards too often,” Rey stated after having finally pulled a power coupling to her successfully, “they pack too big of a punch.”

“Yes, this has taken far too long to wear off,” Kylo agreed, then moved closer to her, “now that we’re back up to full strength, I want to try something. May I have your hand?”

He reached out a gloveless hand toward Rey, who matched his gesture without thinking, placing her hand in his. He smiled at her slightly.

“Ok, I’m going to try to do something bigger. I’m going to try to pull that shuttle to us. I want you to imagine funneling your power into me to help. Don’t reach out toward the shuttle itself. Just keep holding my hand. Ok?”

“Hold your hand and give you my power? Uh...I don’t really like this idea.”

“Hmm...understandable. What about this: you try to pull the shuttle, and I’ll funnel power into you?”

“I like that better,” Rey smirked at him, earning herself a grin in return.

“Yes, I thought you would. Ok, let’s try it.”

They both turned toward the shuttle and steadied themselves on their feet. They had to switch hands as Rey had initially been holding on to Kylo with her dominant hand.

“Ready?” he asked, giving her fingers a squeeze.

“Yes,” she nodded forcefully, “here we go.”

Rey reached her hand out towards the shuttle and felt her connection to the Force crackle. Pull, she thought, come here. 

Without warning, she felt a surge of power flow into her. Before she could figure out what to do with it, the shuttle was careening toward them, and it was only Kylo’s quick thinking that prevented her from being squished between the shuttle and wall as it crashed into the bulkhead behind where she had been standing. 

She looked up to realize that Kylo had yanked her into his arms and thrown them both on the floor to get out of the way of the shuttle. He was...comfortable to lean against. Trying to distract herself from that kind of thinking, Rey shoved away from him and stood up.

“That was…” Kylo gaped at the crumpled shuttle behind them.

“Yeah. We’re going to need more practice so we don’t end up killing ourselves in this process.”

“Yes. More practice. Definitely more practice,” Kylo pushed himself up off the floor and stood beside her. Reaching his hand out towards her, he grinned, “again?”

TLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTLTL

Thirty-six hours later, Rey found herself comfortably ensconced in Kylo’s Y-Wing cruiser, wearing clothing the likes of which she’d never had before. 

Thinking that her “sand robes,” as Kylo called them, might be a tripping liability in close quarters combat, he had talked her into wearing some of the unbranded leisure attire doled out to First Order officers. They had been interrupted by General Pryde, who suffered a mysterious, fatal accident immediately afterward. Once they had placed his remains in a location where he would be found quickly, they had both gotten dressed. For ceremony’s sake, Kylo was wearing his typical robes, while Rey wore tight-fitting black slacks, a white tunic, and a red cargo vest, which had more pockets than she had ever seen. They were comfortable clothes, and she found it much easier to move around in them than her old clothing. She nearly looked like a different person.

They had practiced using the bond to amplify their powers for several hours, and had eventually achieved control over it. More helpful, they were also able to use the Force bond even without touching, which would make a physical altercation much easier to win. It’s difficult to have a lightsaber duel with an enemy when you have to drag your partner around with your other hand. 

Their plan wasn’t great. But they really just wanted to get it over with. Rey wasn’t making Kylo any promises, but she had to admit that having him as an ally felt right. She used that logic to give herself permission to imagine being with him after the battle. She wasn’t ready to completely see herself at his side, but she could at least be honest with herself that it had some appeal. Not to mention that the idea of not having to fight for every morsel, every drop of water, every second of rest was incredibly seductive.

She snorted to herself. She would be the first person in history to fall to the Dark Side because it had cookies, showers, and soft beds.

She had no idea she was so vain.

Kylo seemed to be happy with their progress, but tense about their lack of plan. He agreed that time was not on their side and moving faster was better than slower, but he had too much of his mother in him to completely throw caution to the wind. Rey could tell that one of the things that was bothering him was a concern over her safety. She hoped that concern wouldn’t cause him to do something stupid: like throw himself in front of Force lightning so that it wouldn’t hit her. She could take care of herself in a fight, and she needed him to be the thinking and strategy committee. 

She crossed her fingers and hoped for the best. They were nearly to Exegol, and this whole thing would be over soon.

One way or another.

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, I'm not thrilled with the end, but I didn't have a good plan, and I needed this to be done. 
> 
> I encourage conversation in the comments section and suggestions about how they COULD defeat Palps.


End file.
